Sanford's Book May Never Be Published

Fate of 'manifesto' on fiscal conservatism hangs in the balance

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To be fair, one can still give sound economic advice when one's personal life is in the ditch.

As we all know, anybody entertaining even vague aspirations of someday running for president must write a book immediately. This is an important part of establishing one's policy platform and reminding people that one does exist even if one is not the current president or in any other way noteworthy.

Cheating Politicians

As first reported this morning by Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch, Sentinel publisher Adrian Zackheim is trying to figure out what to do with "Within Our Means", "a manifesto about fiscal conservatism--why the government needs to spend less and fix the deficit ASAP," now that Mr. Sanford is no longer the rising star he was two weeks ago.

Seriously? Sanford might not be a rising star, but to the average citizen he is about 50 times more interesting today than he was two weeks ago. If anything, you'd think his higher profile would garner more interest in his book, not less.

But on the other hand, does anybody really want to read his ideas about economics? Absolutely not! Even though he built his career and a good bit of his reputation among fellow Republicans as a fiscal conservative, that's hardly what he's known for now.

If readers want a book from Mark Sanford, it's going to have to be about his heart-wrenching extramarital affair and his weird weekend escapade on the run from his own security detail -- not about deficit reduction. So here's a compromise: just slap a new title on the book. Something catchy, like The Story of My Pants, and keep all the boring fiscal talk exactly as it is. The book will sell like hotcakes, and the switcheroo will go virtually unnoticed. You don't think anybody reads those political books, do you?